Hyderabad anti-reservation rally update

"Our aim is a developed nation, not a divided nation.TALENT KNOWS NO CASTE.Join the anti-reservation movement at indira park sunday 4 june 9am.Please pass this message"

Anti-reservation protest in Hyderabad tomorrow...

“ In aiims 104 hrs of hunger strike 94 students collapse.Media prohibited from covering.Please spread it like fire if u feel 4 worthy of the cause.”
This was the message I got yesterday.. I knew that the doctors were given termination notices..but preventing the media from covering the protest is….sick.
I am not against the entire reservation as such.. just don’t want them to be misused by the well off OBC’s and SC/ST’s and we cannot have around 50% of the seats reserved!I got to know the other day that the government doesn’t even have the data on the population of the OBC’s and how many people is it going to benefit through this increased reservation, It just proves that it’s a political move on the part of the government.. how can they take such a step regarding a sensitive issue like reservation without any adequate data?
Protests are gaining momentum from across India.. and finally Hyderabad has woken up.. there is an anti-reservation protest tomorrow @Indira park ,10 am .So if you feel for the cause and want to extend your support..be there.
I don’t know if anything will be achieved by the protests.. the politicians may well have it their way.. But atleast I would definitely go there to express my support to the cause. I wish everyone who is against this new reservation policy participates too..

And before I end the post would like to add the sms I got yesterday:
“Once tortoise and rabbit wrote eamcet. And got the same rank but only tortoise got the seat.. do you know why?
Sports quota”

Of celebrations and parties…… and more parties!!!

Yes. That is exactly what I’ve been upto this month!Life’s never been this rocking!And I’ve had a good ending to a hectic year.. 2005 has been hectic for me.. paper presentation at BITS, summer intern at Reliance , the all important placements and finally CAT!Now that I’ve achieved what I’ve wanted to I’m ‘busy’ partying these days:)
It was great fun catching up with people.. Our Career Launcher sir (Chari sir) was so kind to give us a treat at Grand Kakatiya!!(ITC Sheraton’s 5 star hotel!). For few of us it was the first time we stepped into a five star hotel for lunch!The food was awesome and hope sir treats us there everytime he comes to Hyd:) Though some guys missed out the party, it was great fun catching up with people with whom we would’ve argued horribly in a GD practice session or got worried about results together.. It was great to see everyone relaxing and excitedly looking ahead to joining their respective IIM’s.
It was also the time to catch up with the IIML students from Hyderabad. Around 6 came for the first meet at Eat Street and I got blasted to have chosen the time as 4 pm (Eat street is not a place to go at that time..:( but I had other constraints so changed the time to 4). The crowd was great!There was some Sprite’s “Sania Mania” program which the guys were apparently excited about… but I was the only girl there so I just came back home at around 6 so that they could have some fun;) The guys were fun..and in midst of all the jokes they even discussed stuff about interns,lateral placement etc. We shared a common enthusiasm about our 'to be college'. We joked that after a year we would come back to the same place wearing IIML t-shirts!One of them told me about a t-shirt lines which was "CAT sent me to L, and now I'm back from hell". All in all had great fun!
I bunked the next IIML meet because I had to go to the school reunion.. I met up with a lot of them after 6 years.Did kind of get a culture shock to see a few friends smoking and it was the first time I stepped into a pub!Some of them were just the same while others were beyond recognition!It was good that we had to wear badges which made recognising people all the more simpler.The party was well organised and a lot of effort had gone into it to get 50+ people together on one day.Most of us lost touch after 10th as we got busy studying for our respective entrance exams!!It was also fun to see people in their changed 'avtaar'.A very different kind of experience to move around people with whom you had fun 6 years back and now that bonding no longer holds due to the 'changed lifestyles'.
It was fun:)
Anyway the reason why I thought I’ll write my blog was that I remembered an incident where a very close friend of mine grumbled last year that while others were enjoying college life both of us were sitting and working hard and I just told him to wait and we’ll get our turn to enjoy!Now that both of us have a great career ahead I think it was worth all the pain.And am sure this experience will encourage me to work hard in the future because the parties at the end of an achievement are awesome!!!

The extent of sibling rivalry...

I just came back from Tirupati.Due to the heavy rush we had to wait for long hours before the darshan.On one such occasion a lady sat in front of me holding her younger daughter who was around 2 years old .Her elder daughter was sitting just beside her who was around 5 years of age.It reminded me of my days with my younger sister and mother and smiled to myself.Just then the younger one spotted a fancy watch on her sister’s hands.. she wanted it.The elder one declined.Then the small girl got her mother’s attention and started to cry wanting the watch. The mother also requested the elder girl to give the baby the watch but the elder one refused.She said she was tired of giving the younger one all her things!( I continued to smile as I remember similar things happening and my parents always asking me to give stuff to my sister.I had then refused.. now obviously nothing like that happens!) The younger one then threw a tantrum and seeing that she wasn’t getting any success,she angrily,clumsily walked ahead where her grandmother(I assumed) carried her and drew her attention to something more attractive and colorful!A common sight of siblings fighting is what I thought and then immediately for the nth time in the day was reminded of the Pramod Mahajan incident.
Its really sad that a brother could shoot and kill another brother. Mr. Pramod Mahajan was one of the few politicians I liked… I used to watch him participate in the Big Fight debate on NDTV and always thought he was a great orator. He was a media savvy person and atleast for any average person like me watching news, he was very much likeable. I believed that he would become the PM one day.. but that wasn’t meant to happen.It was shocking when I first heard that he was shot, that too by his brother who went and surrendered himself. The entire situation was too bizarre.. but as days passed I hoped that like any film movie’s happy ending, Mr. Pramod Mahajan would battle it out. I kept myself updated by watching the news and reading up stuff about him. The media did some detailed research on him and his life.. Though I got to know the darker aspects of his life and that he wasn’t such an honest politician after all.. he still didn’t deserved this,that too from a brother whom he had helped a lot.
Today at a party my uncle was discussing how Pravin Mahajan would’ve been tortured maybe from his wife and friends which led to the frustration in him to kill his brother.I wonder if the truth ever comes out, but I hope that the guilty be punished.. very severely.
Sibling rivalry is ok..but killing your own brother or sister is so insane.
But this incident has shaken up many. Today the papers reported that Mr. Chandrababu Naidu has patched up his differences with his younger brother!!
The bottom line remains that a dispute between two brothers has cost BJP its most promising leader and the more I read about him, it makes me more sad that we have lost an important leader.Its a bit scary realizing the extent to which sibling rivalry/fight can go.

Responsibility towards NRIs???

The recent news about Mr. Suryanarayana who was shot by the Taliban is now focusing on minor issues with the regional media trying to add masala by bringing out the story of another lady claiming to be his second wife.When we were watching the news, my sister immediately pointed out that the story is similar to an Ekta Kapoor serial and then mummy and daddy discussed if the lady was speaking the truth or not… The news channels then interviewed legal experts to know if the second wife would get any compensation.. meanwhile the first wife is in the hospital after a suicide attempt.Yes.. all this may give Ekta Kapoor some inspiration for a new serial.. but what I’m trying to say is that one issue is being missed out amongst this drama.. the issue of Indians working abroad..their safety..their rights..
I recall that during the Pravasi Bharatiya Divas last January, some of the NRIs have raised issues such as safety for the Indians abroad. Last heard was that the concerned minister didn’t even attend the meeting which left them furious.Some argue that when Indians have left the country on their will and have settled in another country our responsibility towards them is over as we have a lot of security issues within our country as well. But if I can bring in an analogy over here which is of a girl who leaves home after marriage...Why cant we think the same for Indians working abroad?If they are a part of the Indian delegation, it is obviously the responsibility of the government but even if that Indian is not part of the Indian delegation (as in the present case of Mr. Suryanarayana) can the government do something about them?There are numerous Indians in the Saudi and Middle east who are being exploited but they are not in a position to approach anybody for help.
I know with the fair amount of problems at home, India cant really spread its protective blanket over all Indians around the world. This really got me thinking as to what India can really do. I read this article which suggested that: “Apart from asking Kabul to provide security as well as negotiating the deployment of Indian paramilitary troops where needed, New Delhi could beef up intelligence and the presence of un-uniformed personnel, who will work in an unobtrusive manner to gather information on security threats.”
It maybe idealist thinking but I wish the government takes some serious steps for the cause of Indians abroad.